1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a belt cleaning apparatus that cleans a transporting belt that transports an object to be transported and to a recording apparatus provided with the belt cleaning apparatus.
Examples of the recording apparatus of the present application include, for example, an ink jet printer, a line printer, a copying machine, and a facsimile machine.
2. Related Art
Hitherto, ink jet recording apparatuses have been widely used as apparatuses for carrying out recording of high-definition images on recording mediums such as paper and fabric. In particular, when the recording medium is long, a belt conveying device including an endless transporting belt is used to adhere the recording medium to the transporting belt and to transport the recording medium.
Furthermore, in some cases, such a recording apparatus carries out what is called marginless recording. There are cases in which ink ejected from the recording head adheres to the transporting belt when marginless recording is carried out. Furthermore, when there is a feed error of the recording medium or when the recording medium is thin, in some cases, ink adheres to the transporting belt. If the transporting belt is left with the ink adhered thereto, a recording medium that has been newly fed will be smeared with the ink that has adhered to the transporting belt.
Furthermore, there are cases in which foreign matter such as paper powder, yarn waste, or a pretreatment agent adheres to the surface of the transporting belt depending on the type of recording medium on which recording is carried out by the recording apparatus. Accordingly, if the foreign matter that has adhered to the transporting belt is not dealt with, the foreign matter will adhere to the back side of a newly fed recording medium and the quality of the product will be compromised or friction between the transporting belt and the recording medium will be affected rendering the transport of the recording medium unstable.
Accordingly, JP-A-2012-116617 discloses a recording apparatus that is provided with a belt cleaning apparatus that cleans a transporting belt to remove ink, foreign matter, and the like that have adhered to the transporting belt.
The belt cleaning apparatus of the recording apparatus is positioned below a transporting belt that is wound around a driving roller and a driven roller, and a sprinkler pipe, a brush roller, a scraping blade, and a liquid absorbing roller are provided in this order in the movement direction of the transporting belt. The sprinkler pipe ejects a cleaning solution from a portion thereof facing the surface of the transporting belt.
The brush roller is configured to rotate in a direction opposite to the movement direction of the transporting belt and the liquid absorbing roller is configured to rotate in the same direction as the movement direction of the transporting belt. Furthermore, a portion of each of the brush roller and the liquid absorbing roller is dipped in the cleaning solution, which is retained in a cleaning solution reservoir. The scraping blade is positioned between the brush roller and the liquid absorbing roller and is arranged to scrape off foreign matter that is adhering to the surface of the transporting belt.
The brush roller and the scraping blade scrape off the cleaning solution that has been ejected from the sprinkler pipe and that is adhering to the surface of the transporting belt and, thus, remove dirt from the surface of the transporting belt. Now, the removed cleaning solution is received by the cleaning solution reservoir in which a portion of the brush roller is accommodated.
Furthermore, the cleaning solution reservoir is configured to maintain a predetermined liquid level so that the portion of the brush roller is impregnated with the cleaning solution. In other words, in the belt cleaning apparatus, the cleaning solution is supplied from a cleaning solution supply pipe in order to maintain the liquid surface of the cleaning solution in the cleaning solution reservoir at a predetermined liquid level. A supply port of the cleaning solution supply pipe is positioned above the liquid surface of the cleaning solution. The supply port supplies a new cleaning solution that has no dirt therein to the cleaning solution reservoir from above the liquid surface. Furthermore, the cleaning solution reservoir is provided with an overflow pipe. When the liquid surface of the cleaning solution exceeds the predetermined liquid level, the cleaning solution overflows and is discharged from the cleaning solution reservoir through the overflow pipe.
Incidentally, in the cleaning solution reservoir, supply and discharge of the cleaning solution are carried out near the liquid surface of the cleaning solution that is retained in the cleaning solution reservoir; accordingly, the cleaning solution that has become dirty as a result of cleaning the transporting belt, the foreign matter that has been removed from the transporting belt, and the like are not totally discharged from the overflow pipe but rather settle at the bottom portion of the cleaning solution reservoir.
Accordingly, in the belt cleaning apparatus, dirt, foreign matter, and the like that have settled on the bottom portion of the cleaning solution reservoir cannot be aggressively discharged; accordingly, the concentration of dirt in the cleaning solution inside the cleaning solution reservoir rises and the transporting belt is cleaned by a cleaning solution including dirt. As a result, the ability of the cleaning apparatus to clean the transporting belt is hindered.
Furthermore, when the brush roller rotates, the brush roller stirs up the cleaning solution in the cleaning solution reservoir. In such a case, dirt and foreign matter that have settled at the bottom are mixed in the cleaning solution reservoir and some of the dirt and foreign matter adhere to the brush roller. Accordingly, the cleaning solution including dirt, and foreign matter may disadvantageously adhere to the transporting belt once more. Accordingly, efficiency of cleaning of the transporting belt may be disadvantageously hindered.